Maaleht: Estonian food board still not using lab tests to verify strawberry origin

According to an investigation by the newspaper Maaleht, Estonia's Agricultural and Food Board (PTA) still does not conduct laboratory checks to verify the origin of strawberries, limiting itself to document checks. This allows imported strawberries to be sold as Estonian. Maaleht's investigation seven years ago already revealed that imported strawberries were being sold as Estonian berries. In 2022, a database for laboratory determination of strawberry origin was created at a cost of €220,000, but Estonia has not yet used it. German laboratory Agroisolab GmbH developed a method to determine the country of origin of strawberries, and the database now includes samples of Estonian strawberries. "Estonian strawberries can be distinguished from Polish, Spanish, and Greek," said Liina Kruus, head of the Grain and Feed Laboratory at the Agricultural Research Centre, who participated in collecting Estonian samples. Maaleht repeatedly asked the PTA why it does not use this opportunity to detect strawberry fraud, but the agency did not respond. Marika Arula, chief specialist at the PTA's information services department, said that in recent years, each season there have been isolated reports of possible violations regarding country of origin and labeling, but officials mainly check documents. "In practice, when establishing the origin of goods, the fastest and most important control method is often documentary traceability," said Arula. The department also did not give a clear answer to Maaleht about how much it would cost to order a laboratory test of suspicious strawberries. According to the newspaper, this gives the impression that the PTA does not know which laboratory can conduct such tests and what their cost is.